Book Eleven -- Keeping It Real by Justina Robson

Keeping it Real
by Joanna Robson
SF/Fantasy
333 pages

Okay, to be honest, I was a little iffy about this one. It's a cross between urban fantasy and cyberpunk with a cyborg heroine whose job is to protect a hot elf rock star. Within the first five pages Lila, our heroine, actually looks at herself in the mirror in order for the author to have a chance to describe her--pretty much classic Mary Sue stuff, particularly as, in spite of all the metal attached to her body, she still comes across as pretty hot.

There were other tells that made me wonder if Robson started out as a fan fiction writer*; most glaringly, the little bit of Common Knowledge at the beginning of the book reads like the kind of thing you wouldn't have to explain if you were writing about a universe everyone already knew. It's almost like she didn't know how to present the information any other way, except for that part where she does a halfway decent job of exposition early on.

But you know? I'm kind of glad that I was reading it for Cannonball, because I stuck with it and it was actually a lot of fun.

The basic premise is that there was some sort of awful explosion, called the Quantum Bomb, involving a super collider. The resulting rip in the space time continuum leads to six different worlds existing in parallel to one another: there's our own world (called Otopia for some unknown reason); Zoomenon, the world of the Elementals, Alfheim, where the high/Tolkien style elves live; Demonia, where the Demons hang out; Thanotopia, the land of the dead from which necromancers gain their power; and Faery, and yeah that's pretty obvious.

The Elves are all about Culture and so the fact that Zal the High Elf is a rock star in Otopia is cause for death threats against him. So, enter Lila Black, half-machine, half-human agent. She's brought in as his bodyguard, but also ends up playing a "Game" with him. Games are complex interactions that end with the loser paying a forfeit; in this case, it's pretty easy to guess what the game is, and in fact, the book itself follows the whole "hot bodyguard/sexy rock star" formula, only the peril is a lot more interesting than usual.

I'd recommend this one if you're halfway decent at suspending your disbelief and are looking for a fun, only slightly trashy, romp. It sounds like I'm damning it with faint praise, but the fact is, I enjoyed it for what it was and have every intention of picking of the next in the series.


*Not that there's anything wrong with that; I can easily name a handful of SF/Fantasy writers who started out writing fan fiction. In fact....

Okay, this is where I suddenly lose a lot of cred and probably some respect from some of you people, but...I'm a fan fiction writer and have been for the last 14 years. I've also published one short story that's been reprinted a couple of times, most recently in Best Lesbian Bondage Erotica. But mostly? I write (mostly) gay porn about TV shows and movies and even actors.